ROSE FAMILY (Rosaceae)
WHITE PRAIRIE ROSE
Trees, shrubs, or herbs; leaves simple or compound, stipules present; sepals 5; petals 5; stamens numerous; carpels 1 or more; sepals and petals borne on rim of calyx-tube.
White Prairie Rose or Woods’ Rose (Rosa woodsii) at first glance may be confused with the dewberry because of the low, bushy creeping stems and similar white flowers. The stems are 1-3 ft. high and are armed with straight prickles, usually in pairs; the leaves have 5-9 oval leaflets ½-1½ in. long. The flowers bloom in late May and early June, the dark red globe-shaped hips maturing in the late summer and fall. It may be found from Texas to Minnesota and Colorado. The white flowers are commonly two inches broad and very much like those of the McCartney rose, but it is more closely related to the cinnamon rose.
The McCartney rose (Rosa bracteata), early introduced from China into the Southern States and planted for windbreaks, is still very abundant on the coastal prairie, often forming great mounds about 10 ft. high. The thick evergreen leaves are divided into 5-9 oval leaflets, which are bright green and shining above. The sepals and the broadened portion of the stem below the white flower are densely silky.
PINK PRAIRIE ROSE
Pink Prairie Rose or Climbing Rose (Rosa setigera) has climbing branches 6-15 ft. long with straight scattered prickles. The leaves are divided into 3-5 leaflets which are sharply pointed and 1-3 in. long. The showy pink flowers, 2 in. broad, grow in terminal clusters. This plant is considered one of the finest foods and covers for quail, grouse, and other birds. Native from Ontario to Texas and Florida, it is a hardy climber which has been widely introduced into other places, Baltimore Belle being one of the early cultivated forms. It is particularly abundant in Texas in the vicinity of Tyler, blooming in late May and June.
The wild roses are fairly rare in the state, but many cultivated roses are grown. Tyler has recently become a center of rose-growing, and carloads of rose plants are shipped throughout the United States. The scientific name retains the ancient Latin name.
SOUTHERN DEWBERRY
Southern Dewberry (Rubus trivialis) has large white flowers very much like those of the wild rose, but the petals are narrower, particularly at the base. The fruit is a head of small, fleshy-seeded fruits, purplish-black when ripe. The flowers bloom in March and early April, the sweet and palatable berries ripening in the latter part of April. The plant is an evergreen shrub with trailing or low climbing stems, 10-15 ft. long, heavily armed with prickles. Fences along the roadside are often covered with dense masses of the stems.
Bush Blackberry (Rubus argutus) grows in moist woods in East Texas and on through the Gulf States to New Jersey. The stems are 3-4 ft. high, the branches erect. The flowers are white and grow in thick clusters. The berries are somewhat dry, oblong, and edible, but not very palatable.